Professor Schaede is an authority on Japanese business organization, strategy and management. Her core research interest is to analyze and juxtapose different systems of capitalism and ways of organizing business, in order to identify the social and economic efficiency consequences of these differences. Her mode of exploration is to study in great detail the institutions and mechanisms of Japan’s business and political economy, a system well-known to differ from the U.S. along important dimensions.

In particular, Schaede has looked at Japanese corporate strategies in light of Japan’s financial market organization, regulation and government-business relationships, corporate governance and takeovers, antitrust, employment practices, and innovation policies, and entrepreneurship. She is an expert on current affairs of Japanese companies and industry dynamics, as well as policy initiatives and the historical background to ongoing reforms.

At GPS, Schaede teaches the international management capstone class, “Strategy and Negotiation”, as well as two Japan Focus classes, “Business and Management in Japan” and “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Japan”.

Schaede has published five books, 22 peer-reviewed articles in academic journals, 33 book chapters, two HBS case studies, and many academic book reviews. She is the author of a highly acclaimed op-ed series of ten installments published in Japanese in 2014-15, under the title “What is Great about Japanese Management”. On average, the pieces in this series attracted more than 100,000 unique page views each.

Schaede is trilingual (English, German, Japanese), and has spent more than nine years of study and research in Tokyo, Japan. She has been a professor at Hitotsubashi University, and a visiting scholar at the research institutes of the Bank of Japan, Japan's Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Development Bank of Japan. She has also been a Visiting Professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and the Harvard Business School. She currently serves as the Vice Chairperson of the academic advisory board of the German Institute of Japan Studies (DIJ, Max-Weber-Foundation) in Tokyo, and as a member of the advisory board of the IN-EAST program at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany.

Expert Sheet

Expertise

Schaede is a leading authority on Japanese business organization, strategy and management, and various aspects of the Japanese political economy. Her 2008 book “Choose and Focus: Japanese Business Strategies for the 21st Century” argues that Japan’s political economy and industrial architecture have undergone a strategic inflection point, and the business strategies needed to win in the “New Japan” are fundamentally different from the postwar period. Japan’s well-known business institutions, such as the main bank system, keiretsu, trading companies, employment practices and ownership structures are changing accordingly, but interestingly not all at the same time. Schaede's current work seeks to analyze these change processes and identify newly emerging business strategies, management practices, financial markets, and government-business relations in Japan.

Member, Editorial Advisory Board, The Japanese Political Economy(2002-present).

Member, International Editorial Board, Asien, 2004-present.

Research Associate, Columbia Business School, Center on Japanese Economy and Business (1999-present).

Research

Expertise

Schaede is an expert in Japanese business and management, including corporate strategies by large and small firms, corporate governance, employment and HR practices, innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as government-business relations, regulation, financial markets and antitrust. She has published and commented on many aspects of the Japanese economy, and closely follows corporate developments and business matters in Japan.

Her publications and current research interests are grouped into 3 main areas (for further publication, see the CV):

Corporate Strategy, Business and Industry

How are Japan’s industry dynamics and corporate strategies changing toward the “New Japan”? What are the main characteristics and management practices of profitable Japanese companies? What are the ongoing changes in the banking system, ownership structures, and corporate governance? And how has Japan’s political economy evolved over time?

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

How do Japanese firms innovate? What is the state Japan’s national system of innovation and technology policy? How are ongoing disruptions through the Internet-of-Things and associated technologies shaping Japan’s business system?